Meteorology

• The Indian government-affiliated research laboratory is the country's prime center specializing in fundamental and applied research in atmospheric and space sciences.
• For weather forecasting and atmospheric research needs, the laboratory leverages the WRF Model running on the on-premises HPC cluster.
• Recently, the HPC cluster has expanded, and so has the complexity of the WRF Model.
• We chose Infortrend because it offers high-performance and high-capacity storage at a competitive price," said the head of the Computing and Data Management Division at the Research Laboratory.

• The radome market is constantly evolving with the introduction of new technologies and manufacturing processes.
• The North American region is witnessing robust growth in the radome market driven by key business factors.
• The presence of key radome manufacturers and suppliers in North America, as well as global competition, influences market dynamics.
• This growing demand for satellite launches is translating into a higher demand for SLV radomes, which protect the delicate radar systems on these vehicles.

• Existing diseases have been exacerbated by service interruptions, and people have lost their homes and livelihoods.
• It is a disaster mainly caused by our decisions and lack of preparation to deal with a more extreme climate hazard.
• As an academic disaster researcher from Chile, I think there are lessons we can learn from these fires.

Fire-prone conditions

• Meteorological conditions have made Chile very prone to fires this summer, especially in this long-and-thin country’s central region, where it is warm enough for fires yet wet enough for there to be vegetation to burn.
• Conditions were dry on top of a longer-term mega-drought, and relative humidity was low.
• It is very likely that these conditions have been influenced by El Niño, on top of human-induced climate change.

Formula for a (not natural) perfect disaster

• This is exactly what happened in Chile: a deadly combination of an extreme climate hazard and inadequate social preparation.
• Several antennas were affected by the fires and not properly working, so many people did not receive the message on time.
• This led to traffic jams and bottlenecks, some of which became engulfed in the middle of the fires.

Climate-related hazards shouldn’t turn disastrous

• However, the human health risks this poses can be reduced by adequate preparedness and response plans.
• Villa Botania, near the city of Quilpué in central Chile, emerged from these fires as an interesting example to learn from.
• This can save lives, as shown by the success since the 1970s of anti-seismic building regulations in this earthquake-prone country.

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Yasna Palmeiro Silva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• If a Category 5 storm with wind speeds of 250 kilometres per hour is heading for you, you prepare differently than you would for a Category 1 with wind speeds of 65 km/h.
• In a hotter world, cyclones are expected to become less common but more intense when they do form.
• Only one hurricane in the Western Hemisphere has yet gone past the 309 km/h winds the researchers nominate for a Category 6.
• And the whole idea of storm scales, including Australia’s own tropical cyclone scale, is that Category 5 storms are those likely to do catastrophic damage.

What are storm scales for?

• There are several different intensity scales in use.
• Different scales are used in the Australian, North Indian, Southwest Indian, and western North Pacific basins.
• Tropical Cyclone Oswald, a 2013 Category 1 storm, led to heavy rainfall and flooding through Queensland and New South Wales, while the 1992 Category 5 Hurricane Andrew caused catastrophic wind damage – but little rain or storm surge damage when it hit Florida.

So do we really need a Category 6?

• But this is the only one which meets their criteria in the last 40 years, as it was well observed by US aircraft missions.
• The Australian Tropical Cyclone Scale has different thresholds but similar reasoning for a Category 5 storm.
• Based on the understanding that winds at Category 5 and above lead to catastrophic outcomes, it’s hard to see how adding a Category 6 would help the public.
• If a Category 5 means “expect catastrophic consequences”, what would Category 6 mean?

How can we best communicate cyclone threats?

• Scientists came up with tropical cyclone intensity scales as a way to clearly communicate the nature and size of the damage likely to occur.
• Fundamentally, these scales are meant to measure how well our buildings and infrastructure can survive the wind force and also protect us.
• Read more:
  Even weak tropical cyclones have grown more intense worldwide – we tracked 30 years of them using currents

Liz Ritchie-Tyo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.